We just finished the Ganesha Chaturthi festival..This is the first ganesha festival or any festival for that matter for me without Pappa..It was very emotional moment since I have great remembrances of all the Ganesha festivals right from the childhood..The earlier memories are of me getting new clothes on few festivals and one of them surely was the Ganesha Chaturthi apart from the fire crackers..I remember always either burning crackers while getting the Ganesha home or playing 'Jhangti' ( the hindu metal and a small hammer usually made of wodden to create melodious sound ). Ganesha is supposed to be welcomed with sound and this was the tradition ...
Earlier we did not use to keep Ganesha at home, a tradition once started cannot be stopped. It used to be commonly kept at my uncles house. Later, while I grew up and it was sometime when I was in 6, 7th class in Sambra that we started getting Ganesha home .
Pappa also convinced few other close family friends in Sambra to keep Ganesha in their respective homes as well. His trait of collaboration with the community continued later in his life at Classic Orchards as well where was instrumental in starting the Ganesha festival. For all the years till now ( 6 years till now in classic orchards ), he was the one who used to book the Ganesha Idol and get the same to our layout. I was happy to do the same this year as well in keeping his tradition ..
He got all the families together and used to plan for festivities in advance. Sambra, being a air force station, we had to go to Balekundri, a village adjacent to get our Ganesha's in the morning. It was usually monsoon and we had to traverse the village paths adorned with all the muddy water and 'kesuru' ( Kannada word for mounds of watery mud caused because of rains ). We used to keep our chappals at home so that they dont get stuck in the mud slings :-)
Our schedule of the day used to be getting Ganesha home, doing Ganesha pooja, burning crackers and then having a sumptuous lunch, where Modaka ( Kannada word for the sweet that is made at home which is the most loved sweet for God Ganesha ) was a mandatory preparation. The evenings used to be socializing time of visiting other homes where Ganesha idols were kept. It usually used to be 5-6 families including Anantachar sir, Nadgir sir, Pagnis uncle, Kadkol uncle's homes and there were few other families where Ganesha was not kept.
The day prior to the Ganesha festival used to be also full of action till late night because of the decorations that Pappa would be doing at home. This include complete re orientation of the furniture's and the creating a podium for the God along with the various paper decorations and some smaller interesting things like battery operated chakra behind lord Ganesha, coloured lights in the mandap etc ..I also remember him writing in his beautiful handwriting 'Shri Ganeshaya Namah' in a chart paper to be pasted above the mandap.
He also was a great carpenter and had created a wodden mandap himself that was used almost for a decade in Sambra ..This wodden mandap used to be the same but would look different each year because of the different decorations adorning it.. He had a deep interest in wood work, carpentry and often used to be carpenter himself ..
Coming back to the title of the blog,,Pappa's birthday was the day next to the Ganesha Chaturthi and this happened to be yesterday,, the first posthumous birthday ..I was remembering him and so would all his near and dear ones who used to call him every year on this day ..
Earlier we did not use to keep Ganesha at home, a tradition once started cannot be stopped. It used to be commonly kept at my uncles house. Later, while I grew up and it was sometime when I was in 6, 7th class in Sambra that we started getting Ganesha home .
Pappa also convinced few other close family friends in Sambra to keep Ganesha in their respective homes as well. His trait of collaboration with the community continued later in his life at Classic Orchards as well where was instrumental in starting the Ganesha festival. For all the years till now ( 6 years till now in classic orchards ), he was the one who used to book the Ganesha Idol and get the same to our layout. I was happy to do the same this year as well in keeping his tradition ..
He got all the families together and used to plan for festivities in advance. Sambra, being a air force station, we had to go to Balekundri, a village adjacent to get our Ganesha's in the morning. It was usually monsoon and we had to traverse the village paths adorned with all the muddy water and 'kesuru' ( Kannada word for mounds of watery mud caused because of rains ). We used to keep our chappals at home so that they dont get stuck in the mud slings :-)
Our schedule of the day used to be getting Ganesha home, doing Ganesha pooja, burning crackers and then having a sumptuous lunch, where Modaka ( Kannada word for the sweet that is made at home which is the most loved sweet for God Ganesha ) was a mandatory preparation. The evenings used to be socializing time of visiting other homes where Ganesha idols were kept. It usually used to be 5-6 families including Anantachar sir, Nadgir sir, Pagnis uncle, Kadkol uncle's homes and there were few other families where Ganesha was not kept.
The day prior to the Ganesha festival used to be also full of action till late night because of the decorations that Pappa would be doing at home. This include complete re orientation of the furniture's and the creating a podium for the God along with the various paper decorations and some smaller interesting things like battery operated chakra behind lord Ganesha, coloured lights in the mandap etc ..I also remember him writing in his beautiful handwriting 'Shri Ganeshaya Namah' in a chart paper to be pasted above the mandap.
He also was a great carpenter and had created a wodden mandap himself that was used almost for a decade in Sambra ..This wodden mandap used to be the same but would look different each year because of the different decorations adorning it.. He had a deep interest in wood work, carpentry and often used to be carpenter himself ..
Coming back to the title of the blog,,Pappa's birthday was the day next to the Ganesha Chaturthi and this happened to be yesterday,, the first posthumous birthday ..I was remembering him and so would all his near and dear ones who used to call him every year on this day ..
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